Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit

Chapter 265: Betting

Lu Ping was baffled as he never thought that he would get involved in this matter. This Mister Yue was a strange guy, why was he trying to provoke him?

The Shangguan Clan head didn’t say anything, while Li Mao-Lin was quietly shocked.

In his early years of cultivation, Mister Yue had taken a wrong step in his cultivation leading to irreversible damage to his cultivation foundation. As a result, he could never advance to the Core Forging Realm, which put an unbreakable limit on his alchemy achievements.

Hence, although Mister Yue’s alchemy was extremely good, even better than some of Master Alchemists at concocting half-step Core Forging Realm medicinal pellets, he could never concoct Core Forging Realm pellets and become a true Master Alchemist.

Overtime, his awkward situation had created a twisted personality – he was extremely jealous of young and talented alchemists, and couldn’t stand to see them surpassing him in becoming Master Alchemists.

Mister Yue had convinced himself that fate was jealous of his potential, and so it stripped him of his potential and gave it to others. He became resentful and hated every talent, so he always criticized them, trampling on their confidence and self-esteem.

Alchemists always knew how to recognize other alchemists. While the Shangguan Clan’s clan head was speculating who the Li Clan’s representative in the Alchemy Conference was, Yue Jiang-Rui already knew it was Lu Ping.

In order to take part in the Alchemy Conference for medium-sized organizations, alchemists had to be at least capable of concocting Late Blood Condensation Realm medicinal pellets. However, in order to avoid being laughed at, the alchemists would have to be able to concoct half-step Core Forging Realm pellets, or in other words, be Quasi-Master Alchemists.

Lu Ping wasn’t even 30 years old, yet, not only was he in the Peak Blood Condensation Realm, he was also a Quasi-Master Alchemist. Hence, in Yue Jiang-Rui’s view, it was almost guaranteed that Lu Ping would become a Master Alchemist after he advanced into the Core Forging Realm.

So, it was only natural that Yue Jiang-Rui was jealous and resentful, prompting him to provoke Lu Ping in order to vent his irrational anger.

Li Mao-Lin was worried that Lu Ping would get angered and fall for Yue Jiang-Rui’s scheme. In his opinion, Lu Ping was definitely no match for Yue Jiang-Rui, who had practiced alchemy for almost a hundred years.

If Lu Ping fell for Yue Jiang-Rui’s trap and lost, not only would Lu Ping be humiliated, it would also affect the Li Clan’s plan in the Alchemy Conference.

Li Mao-Lin wanted to remind Lu Ping, or even stop him, but alchemists had their own ways of handling disputes among themselves. Outsiders were in no position to intervene, and doing so might cause offense to the respective alchemists.

Li Mao-Lin sighed in his heart when he saw Yue Jiang-Rui’s sly expression. Apart from Yue Jiang-Rui’s alchemy expertise, his fame in the Northern League was unparalleled amongst the ranks of Quasi-Master Alchemists, there was no way Lu Ping could best him.

Eventually, Li Mao-Lin chose to remain silent. Li Xiu-Zhu was annoyed with Yue Jiang-Rui’s attitude, but like her father, she similarly kept quiet. Besides her unhappiness with Lu Ping because of the incident that occured yesterday, she had always been timid with no opinions of her own.

On the other hand, Chilian Ying snickered at Lu Ping, clearly looking forward to how he would make his way out of this sticky situation. Lu Ping saw her snicker and wondered how such an unladylike expression always felt so natural for her.

“A dying senior who already has half a foot in the grave can definitely call the juniors as kids.” Lu Ping nodded in agreement, then added emphatically, “It’s normal.”

Lu Ping’s message was clear, Old man, there’s no way you’ll become an Enlightened Master anymore at your age. So, no matter how good your alchemy is, you will never become a Master Alchemist. But, I can, so I won’t bother comparing myself with you.

Naturally, the sarcasm thoroughly infuriated Yue Jiang-Rui.

Li Mao-Lin immediately mourned inside his heart, while the Shangguan father and son gloated to the side. Offending Yue Jiang-Rui wasn’t wise, unless that person was a Master Alchemist, which Lu Ping clearly wasn’t.

“Good, good, hehehe!”

Yue Jiang-Rui was so angry he laughed. Then, he pointed at Lu Ping and Li Mao-Lin, and said, “Fate has always been unfair, young and talented cultivators like yourself are always conceited, having no respect for others or your seniors, even looking down and criticizing the work of other alchemists. Others may shy away from offending talents like you, but I will not. I will teach you a valuable lesson, one that you will remember for your whole life! Li Clan, will you be stopping me?”

The entire speech was for Lu Ping, except for the last question which was directed to Li Mao-Lin.

Yue Jiang-Rui was clearly being unreasonable. It was him who provoked Lu Ping first, and it was also him who didn’t have any respect for others, not even greeting Enlightened Master Li Mao-Lin back.

Lu Ping never thought he would meet such an unreasonable old geezer, but there was no point in talking about reason anymore.

Li Mao-Lin was in a dilemma. If he helped Lu Ping, the Li Clan would undoubtedly offend the narrow-minded Yue Jian-Rui. However, if he didn’t help Lu Ping, Lu Ping’s defeat would affect their plan in the Alchemy Conference, which could lead to the clan’s demotion and cause them to incur heavy losses in the share of the spirit stone mine between the three clans.

Lu Ping didn’t say anything as he was waiting to see what Li Mao-Lin would do.

Li Mao-Lin pondered for a long time, and said, “Mister Yue, the Alchemy Conference is just around the corner, if you are interested in having a competition with my alchemist, there will be plenty of time to do so after the conference, what do you think?”

Li Mao-Lin eventually decided to abandon Lu Ping, but not before the Alchemy Conference.

Lu Ping squinted his eyes and didn’t say anything. Chilian Ying sighed slightly, while Li Xiu-Zhu’s face blushed red with slight embarrassment.

“That’s not necessary,” Yue Jiang-Rui sneered, “I heard that the Three Clans Alliance will be using the conference to determine how the three clans share the spirit stone mine. Why not add another bet on top of this?

“In the contest, if this kid can rank higher than me amongst the 126 alchemists, then I will let this matter go. However, if he can’t, then he will have to apologize to me in public, give me his alchemy cauldron, and admit his inferiority in alchemy, while the Li Clan will also have to marry the young lady to the Shangguan Clan. What do you say?”

An alchemy cauldron represented an alchemist. Hence, losing an alchemy cauldron to someone else was the biggest shame to any alchemist. Any alchemist who had lost their cauldron, could never concoct pellets for anyone else, until they won their cauldron back.

The biggest taboo in the cultivation world was to impede a cultivators’ cultivation progress; for alchemists, losing their alchemy cauldron was almost as serious as that.

Hence, Yue Jiang-Rui’s bet was simply cruel, and borderline fiendish. He couldn’t wait to end Lu Ping’s alchemy journey in his hands.

Li Mao-Lin said bitterly, “Mister Yue……”

“That’s a deal!”

Li Mao-Lin fiercely turned his head around only to see it was his own daughter who had agreed to the deal. He was dumbstruck and suddenly didn’t know how to react.

On the other hand, the Shangguan Clan’s clan head laughed happily, “Niece Xiu-Zhu is really bold. Don’t you worry, my Shangguan Clan will shelter the Li Clan no matter what happens. I promise that the Li Clan will not be taken advantage of, and you will retain your position in the Three Clans Alliance. Not even the Zhang Clan will do anything to the Li Clan. After all, just like the Zhang Clan, my Shangguan Clan also has a disciple under the tutelage of Qian Yuan Mountain’s Great Ancestor.”

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Behind the clan master, his son, Shangguan Hao, looked at Li Xiu-Zhu with great excitement. To him, Li Xiu-Zhu only agreed to the deal because she wanted to get married to him. He thought that she had fallen for him and it was only Li Mao-Lin who didn’t agree to the marriage.

Finally, not only would this beauty be his, he would also be able to justify being involved in the Li Clan’s affairs. In time, he would eventually claim Li Clan for his own. After all, Li Mao-Lin only had one daughter, so who else would he pass the clan to besides her. At that time, as her husband, it would only be natural that he helped her take care of the clan.

The Shangguan Clan would grow in power with the Li Clan gradually transforming into its vassal. The cultivation resources the Li Clan held, including the spirit stone mine, would eventually become the Shangguan Clan’s resources.

Li Mao-Lin anxiously said, “Zhu’er, what are you doing? Even if our Li Clan gets demoted, we will never submit to any marriage alliance for the clan’s future.”

Li Xiu-Zhu replied calmly, “Father, I am only doing this because I have confidence in Brother Lu.”

Li Mao-Lin was stunned when he heard that. He had only been thinking about the clan’s gains and losses, and had forgotten that Lu Ping was the key to the Li Clan’s success in the Alchemy Conference. He was so determined to avoid conflict that he had unknowingly considered that Lu Ping would definitely lose to Yue Jiang-Rui.

Find the original at h*sted novel.

At this moment, Shangguan Hao, who had just been feeling good about himself, glared at Lu Ping furiously. His gaze gradually became colder, with the corners of his eyes twitching.

With how keen Lu Ping’s senses were, he immediately picked up on the change in Shangguan Hao’s aura. He glanced over at him, but he had never taken the latter seriously at all.

Shangguan Hao noticed the glance and Lu Ping’s indifference. As a pampered and arrogant young master, he naturally couldn’t stand that.

How dare a puny Blood Condensation Realm cultivator dare to belittle an Enlightened Master like myself!

——

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